I absolutely loved this. A lot of the action sequences felt like they were ripped out of video games, but I don’t mean that as a pejorative. It makes sense that a younger generation of directors would include video games as part of their visual frames of reference.
The action sequences range from very good to excellent, but what got me was the lighting of the whole thing. It’s so nice to see an action series avoid muddy darkness as a method of hiding bad CGI. Everybody involved in this also puts in an A+ effort. With the first film, it felt like Chad was a stunt director first and a film director second. Now, his confidence behind the lens is palpable.
Not long ago, I would have hated this. But recognizing the Wick series as a pastiche of spaghetti westerns completely opened it up for me. At this point, I revere these films the same way I do Kill Bill: they’re ridiculous, but they know they’re ridiculous.
Between Wick out-sillying Bond, and Mission: Impossible out-actioning Bond and out-villaining Bond, I don’t envy the folks trying to figure out where Bond should go next.